artist and educator

games

Your body aches. Your head feels like it is going to explode. You are tired, but you can’t sleep. And every day, you have to painstakingly stick to a schedule, just to take pills to mitigate some of these symptoms. You are living with a chronic invisible illness. Bitter Pills is a board game about this experience, where you manage your medications and deal with the symptoms of hypothyroidism and polycystic ovary syndrome. Chronic illnesses are often hard to talk about, and in the case of invisible illness, there’s no outward symptoms for others to see. By playing Bitter Pills, sufferers are given a way to discuss chronic illness with others through a less complicated language than the usual medical terminology, and their loved ones are able to experience the often stressful process of their daily routine.

Bitter Pills will be on display as part of the 2015 Interdisciplinary Arts MFA Thesis Exhibition at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. The exhibition will run from May 8-May 23, 2015. It will also appear at the 2015 Albert P. Weisman Exhibition at the Arcade Gallery at Columbia College Chicago September 8-October 15, 2015.